Mexican Police 'Mistakenly' Shot Up This armoured SUV Carrying Two US Officials

Earlier reports said U.S. Marines were involved but BI sources have refuted that report.

Photo: AP

Two U.S. government employees are in stable condition after their car was riddled with bullets on a busy highway outside of Mexican City, Dudley Althaus of the Houston Chronicle reports.There are multiple reports that Mexican federal police mistakenly shot up the armoured U.S. Embassy vehicle, which has diplomatic plates and was being driven by a Mexican marine.

An AP report describes the event as a “confused gun battle” and did not specify who shot the U.S. officials.

From AP:

The [Mexican] Navy said Friday the embassy personnel were heading down a dirt road to a military installation when a carload of gunmen opened fire on them and chased them, along with a Navy officer accompanying them.

Alerted to the gunfire, a federal police patrol vehicle came to the scene and apparently opened fire. The statement does not make clear whose bullets injured the U.S. workers.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press both men hospitalized, one with a wound to the leg and the other hit in the stomach and hand.

A Mexican army official told AP that a Mexican navy captain was also in the vehicle but was not injured.

The U.S. embassy had no immediate comment.

The attack occurred about 50 miles south of the Mexico capital in Cuernavaca, a mountainous area where drug gangs have been fighting for control since U.S.-backed marines killed drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva there in December 2009.